Boilerplate is ubiquitous in the modern world of contracts, if "ubiquitous" is the word we're looking for. You'd think that after a hundred years of legal analysis, most of the issues around boilerplate (the pejorative term for "standard form") would be pretty much settled. But you'd only think that if you weren't a contracts lawyer.

The issues surrounding standard forms will be the topic of a new conference, Boilerplate: Foundations of Market Contracts, to be held at Michigan on September 23-24. Omri Ben-Shahar as put together an A-list of panelists. Should be an interesting and thought-provoking couple of days. Click on the "Continue Reading" for the full announcement.

The University of Michigan Law School, with the Michigan Law Review, will hold a conference on

"Boilerplate: Foundations of Market Contracts."

The conference will be held in Ann Arbor, at the Law School Campus, on Friday-Saturday, September 23-24, 2005.

The conference is sponsored by the Olin Center for Law and Economics at Michigan. Please visit the Center's website for more information. Registration information will be posted soon; there is no fee for the sessions.

The proceedings of the symposium will be published in early 2006 in the Michigan Law Review, and later, in an abridged version, in a volume titled Boilerplate: Foundations of Market Contracts (Omri Ben-Shahar, Ed., Cambridge Univ. Press).